“Can I sit?”

“Of course.”

He sat down and placed a bag on the table. “I got you something,” he said quietly.

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” I was still looking down at the table. Too ashamed to face him after what had happened between us.

“It’s not really for you. It’s more for me.” He tipped the bag and emptied the contents.

A phone.

“It’s an upgrade from your old flip phone. This one has Internet and stuff.”

I finally managed to look up at him. He was smiling, but the moment was awkward.

“I bought enough credit for a year. They charged it while I was buying it. I loaded Facebook on it and made you an account.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you have a Facebook account now. I’m your only friend. You can chat, send me pictures. Whatever.” He slid the phone over to me. “And it’s a gift. Mary always says never to look a gift horse in the mouth. I don’t really know what that means, but I think it means that if you get a gift, then you have to use it. This is my gift to you—you have to use it. You have to stay in touch. Send me messages. Pictures of where you are and what you’re doing. You have to let me know that you’re okay, and that you’re healthy.”

Mary sniffed, pulling me out of my thoughts. She buried her face in Dean’s arm.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry, Chloe,” Harry said.

“Thank you. I love it,” I said, wiping my cheeks.

“Promise me you’ll use it.”

I laughed. “You’re going to have to show me how.”

He grinned and picked up the phone.

I tried to listen to his instructions, but instead I noticed Blake watching us the entire time, his eyebrows drawn and a frown on his face.

He stayed that way until the bell above the door chimed, and Josh ran in, carrying Tommy. “Hey, everyone,” Josh’s words rushed out, and then he set Tommy on the floor. Tommy stood on wobbly feet. “Okay, Tommy. Do it!” Josh ordered.

Tommy dropped himself on his diaper-covered butt.

Josh rolled his eyes, picked him up, and set him on his feet again.

We all watched.

“He did it this morning, took his first step,” Josh informed us, his eyes trained on Tommy. “Go on, buddy, do it again.”

Tommy stood still. His little eyes moving from one person to the other.

“Come on,” Josh encouraged. “You’re making a liar out of your daddy.”

Tommy moved.

We held our breaths.

But then he fell on his butt again.

Josh sighed and set him on his feet.

Tommy pulled out his pacifier and pointed to Blake. “Hunt.”

Blake’s eyes went huge. “He can say my name!”

“You want Uncle Hunter?” Josh said excitedly. He pulled Blake out of the booth and stood him two feet in front of Tommy. “Go to Uncle Hunter,” he cooed.

“Hunt,” Tommy said again.

And then he took a step. Followed by another. And then another. He fell on the fourth, but it didn’t matter. We were out of our seats and cheering by the time Blake picked him up off the floor and sat him on his lap. “I’m your Uncle Hunt,” he said through a smile.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Blake

Graduation day.

The last day of Chloe.

It sucked.

Almost as much as the fact that when I woke up that morning and opened my eyes, Dad was hovering above me with what looked like a gift basket containing a basketball and Duke Blue Devils jersey. “What the fuck is this?”

For a second, I got scared. I let his intimidation work. And then I remembered Chloe and, all of a sudden, dealing with Dad didn’t seem so hard. Not compared to saying good-bye to her.

“What does it look like?” I threw the covers off me and stood toe to toe with him.

His eyes widened in surprise, but for only a second, before he recovered and glared at me. His lips turned into a snarl when he growled, “Did you tell them you were enlisting? Basketball is not a future, Hunter. What the fuck kind of lessons and achievements are you going to get from throwing a damn ball around?” His voice got louder with every word.

The thing was, if he would have actually sat down with me, tried to talk it out, maybe made suggestions as to why I should have chosen to enlist rather than play college ball, I would’ve listened to him. I would have heard him out, really considered his point of view. But all he’d done was make me want to tell him to fuck off and that he had no fucking clue about my life or me. So I bit my tongue and contained the rage that had been building for so long. Then I brushed past him, got in the shower, and dressed in the stupid graduation gown.

One day left.

I was going to miss the shit out of her.

Chloe

Arms around my waist gripped me tight. I panicked for a second, but then a familiarity set in. Blake. I was airborne. My legs kicked out in front of me as I mumbled some form of apology to the family whose ice cream I had just started to scoop. Blake and Josh’s laughter filled my ears. I stopped kicking and gave in to the inevitable.

The sunlight hit my eyes when they opened the storeroom door that led to an alleyway behind the building.

Blake set me carefully back on the ground. “I didn’t see you at the ceremony,” he said.

“I told you I wasn’t going. I was only working a half shift here, and I wanted some extra time with Dean and Mary.”